The Huddleston Hunt
by AgentT
Summary: Derek & Co. A century old mystery, an uninvited guest, and an old house...
1. The Huddleston Hunt

Notes: This was written before Purgatory and when it was posted to various FL lists, it was titled Subject - The Huddleston Hunt.   
  
  
Derek was invisible. Or maybe he wasn't, who knows? What he did know, however, was that at that moment, he was being overlooked. He decided then to pull out his camera. Ignoring the loud chattering around him coming from Jason and the "friend" he decided to take along, Derek forced himself to speak.   
  
"Hi, Derek Barnes speaking, coming to you from the vehicle with which we are occupying, on our way to the Huddleston Mansion, which is reputed to be haunted by entities unknown. As apart of this official Freaky Links investigation, I have with me, my partner Jason." He swung the camera to Jason, who was chatting it up in the drivers seat.   
  
"Hey, man." Derek said, tapping Jason on the shoulder. Jason briefly looked back and smiled.   
  
"Hey, get a shot of Sue." Jason said, winking at the girl in the passenger seat.   
  
His companion just rolled her eyes. She hated the camera…she wished it would just stop filming. It made her nervous. Derek Barnes, in his early 20's and male, could not deny that Sue was pretty. Long dark hair and bright eyes, she was funny, intelligent, and also a bit whiny. Showing up at 6 am at his offices were not in the plans, but apparently she's one devoted girlfriend. Or Derek must have slept too long and forgot it was "Take Your Girlfriend To Work Day."   
  
Derek smiled and put the camera back to him. It was a bit hard filming himself without anyone else there to hold the camera. On film, his head might look a bit large…he wondered if Lan could fix that.   
  
"We are nearing the small town of Huddleston, Georgia, which was named after the house that it was built around. History shows that in the mid-1800s, a man by the name of J.E. Huddleston built a grand mansion and invited the nearing city's noblemen to a ball. It was written that over 200 people came, but only 192 people left at the end of the night. Whatever happened to the remaining 8, no one knows. Now, in modern times, the mansion is-"   
  
"Damn." Derek said, when the camera's LCD screen went black. "Jason, did you change the battery?" He asked.   
  
"Jason?" He asked, looking up. He lightly hit his friend in the shoulder.   
  
"What?" Jason asked, slightly irritated. His eyes darted towards the girl as if to say "Stop ruining my game."   
  
"Did you change the battery?" Derek asked, ignoring Jason's look.   
  
Jason thought for a minute, keeping his eyes on the road ahead. "Yeah, of course I did. I brought the extra battery like you asked. It's all in the pack."   
  
Derek reached in and took out the battery. He frowned and removed the battery. He attached the new one to the camera and the screen flickered to life once more.   
  
He focused the camera back towards him. He paused to think about where he had left off.   
  
"You were talking about the mansion in modern times." Jason said, helping Derek.   
  
"Thanks." Derek said, surprised Jason was even paying attention.   
  
"Now in modern times, the mansion is owned by the Georgia Historical Society, and tours are allowed only in certain times of the year. In a fit of luck, the Freaky Links team has scored exclusive time in the mansion. The house is currently open for small renovations and we have been trying to conduct our search for some time now. And thus, the Freaky Links team is devoted to finding out the truth of the mysterious disappearance of 8 people in the 1862."   
  
Derek stopped when the car suddenly stopped.   
  
"What's going on?" He asked, looking out the window. Several police officers and two cruisers marked on the side with the words "Huddleston Sheriff's Department" blocked their way.   
  
"Some kind of blockade." Jason said. He rolled down the window as a police officer came up.   
  
"What are you kids doing here?" He asked.   
  
"We have an appointment with-" Derek looked down at a packet of information he had. "Janine Dobbs."   
  
"You're the kids that are staying at the Huddleston House?" The police officer asked. Derek, Jason, and even Sue nodded.   
  
"What's going on here?" Derek asked the policeman.   
  
"Well, we got a report of a break in at one of the neighboring houses. The neighbors are pretty scared. We're just here to make sure things are all right." He said. Then he smiled. "I'm Sheriff Fielerson."   
  
The name struck a chord. "Wait." Derek said, and started flipping pages in his research notebook. There was a bit of Adam in him as well. "You're not the relative of Daniel Fielerson, are you?"   
  
"The one and the same." The sheriff said, seeming surprised. "You really did your homework." He smiled and waved them through.   
  
"A break-in?" Sue asked.   
  
"Don't worry about it. I'll protect you." Jason grinned.   
  
Derek only rolled his eyes and started the camera back up again.   
  
  
Lan wasn't upset. No, not at all. Just because she had been left behind, doomed to be the one sitting in front of the computer watching the boys do the action, instead of being there herself. And further more, she wasn't upset that at the break of dawn, Jason's girlfriend showed up and practically invited herself along and Derek agreed.   
  
And she wasn't upset that despite that she was Derek's "sunshine in his darkness and his sugar in his coffee" (which she was doubting), she was still the one sitting at home.   
  
The phone rang and Lan picked it up. "Hello?"   
  
"Hey, Sunshine." Derek said. She smiled.   
  
"Where are you guys?" She asked.   
  
"We're there! You should see this, Lan. It's beautiful." Derek said, staring at the castle-like mansion before him. It was a sun compared to the curator offices' planet.   
  
"I would be seeing it if I were there." She said, realizing too late her error.   
  
"Aww, Lan. You know I'm sorry. Please?" Derek pleaded over the phone. "You know you're the sunshine of my darkness, the sugar in my coffee, the…the fuel of my car, the water of my ocean. I owed Jason a favor, and she just showed up."   
  
Lan smiled. She could almost picture Derek doing the puppy dog face she always melted at.   
  
"Okay. But don't think I'm still not a bit upset." She said, despite the smile.   
  
"Great. You're the best." Derek said, turning around. He noticed Sue watching him from the shadows cast by the tall bushes. He didn't think anything of it, but her face was unbearably calm. Not relaxed, or casual even, but just concentrated on one thing so much. Concentrated on him.   
  
"Oh, I got the information you wanted. You know, about the witnesses?" Lan said. "Derek?"   
  
"Uh, yeah." He said, turned away from Sue.   
  
"Should I send it to you?" Lan asked.   
  
"Yeah, do that. Email it to me." Derek said. "And about the Doggett case--"   
  
"Hello?" Lan said into the phone. Silence. She stared at the phone.   
  
Derek stared at the phone. He groaned and redialed the number. He groaned when he got one of those annoying automated operator messages.   
  
We're sorry, but your call could not be completed. Please try again later. Lan angrily set the phone down.   
  
"Hey, where have you been?" Jason said, walking up to Sue. For a moment, she broke her concentration and smiled at him.   
  
"Just here." She said, her eyes twinkling like the stars of heaven.  
  
"Well, lets walk around while Derek does this thing." Jason said, grinning.   
  
Sue looked back at Derek, who's back was facing her. Her eyes flashed yellow and she closed them. She opened them a second later and smiled at Jason.   
  
Derek paused from his phone frustration to watch Sue and Jason walk into the garden behind the curator's office. He couldn't help but sense something was wrong.   



	2. The Huddleston Hunt

Part 2   
  
"As you can see, our grounds are extensive and well-kept." The curator, Janine Dobbs, was leading them through the back of the mansion to familiarize them with their surroundings. Derek had already concluded that she was not an ancestor of any neither of the victims nor of the actual owner. She was a small woman of about 50 who seemed nervous around Derek's camera. She'd occasionally looked back and when she saw it, she'd look away as if she was afraid of it.   
  
Derek didn't want to be impolite. But he really did need to film so he ignored her silent pleas. And Jason wasn't exactly much help.   
  
"The crew will arrive tomorrow, so you have one night alone in the house. If at anytime you need assistance, you can call me, or if it's an emergency, call the sheriff's office. The mansion itself is very well built and you shouldn't have any problems with leakage. There's supposed to be a storm tonight." She led them through the doors into the   
Main foyer. "We have running water as well as electricity. The renovations are on minor things, such as the outside sculptures that need a bit of fixing."   
  
Derek nodded. The conditions were often more ideal than he had been faced with before. There were rooms, beds, and bathrooms, running water, electricity.   
  
"This place is beautiful." Sue said beside them, tracing the arches with her eyes. They danced over the carved moldings above the doors.   
  
Derek couldn't forget the odd feeling he had when she said that. It was almost the words of reminiscing. He pushed the thought of out his mind. Getting paranoid, Barnes. He urged himself. It was nothing at all. Just his imagination acting up. Or maybe it was Sue. That must've been it. Derek didn't like the idea of Jason's girlfriend showing up.   
  
"Indeed it is. The second level is where your rooms will be. Cleaners attend to the house every three days. As I understand, you plan to stay for a week?" She looked at Derek, then at Jason. She didn't look at Sue at all.   
  
"Well, that's what we're planning. But I'm not really sure." Derek said.   
  
"Well, whenever you decide you're done is fine. Just call us." Dobbs smiled.   
  
She started to leave. Jason and Derek smiled back at her and waved.   
  
"I hope the research goes well for you two." She said.   
  
Derek's grin disappeared. He glanced at Jason, who was already halfway up the long staircase.   
  
  
"What was with the that?" Jason asked as he walked into Derek's room.   
  
"With what?" Derek asked.   
  
"I know this is business and all, but you could at least talk to Sue." Jason said.   
  
"Man, this is business, you're right. And you're supposed to be helping me." Derek said.   
  
"And I am. I'm just sayin', talk to her. You don't like her?" Jason asked Derek. He looked up at Jason and shrugged.   
  
"I don't know. She's nice and all, but…" Derek stopped.   
  
"What?" Jason said.   
  
"In the garden, she was staring at me." Derek said.   
  
"Hey, you're the Fox Mulder of the Internet, and Sue's really not into that stuff. She's a senior at Yale."   
  
Derek was impressed. "Yale?"   
  
"Yeah. So she was probably just watching your camera skills." Jason said, smiling. "Don't worry about it."   
  
Within an hour, Derek had begun his "official" investigation. Wielding the camera, Jason panned it across the main hall.   
  
He finally focused it back on Derek, who was checking his hair in one of the large mirrors.   
  
"Talk about bad luck." Jason said, whistling at the mirror, which spanned from mid-wall to the ceiling.   
  
"Yeah. Wouldn't want to break one of those." Derek grinned. "Ready?"   
  
"Yeah, we're running." Jason said, moving around to look at Derek directly. Jason frowned when he saw himself filming Derek in the mirror's reflection. He nodded to the right and Derek looked behind him. Noticing the camera staring back at him from the mirror, he moved aside.   
  
"Derek Barnes here with my partner Jason. We're on location at the Huddleston Mansion deep in the town of Huddleston, Georgia. As you can see-  
  
Jason moved the camera to show the ornate tapestries decorating the main hall.   
  
"The house is very large and has been kept in an immaculate fashion. Back to the case at hand, Freaky Links has uncovered what appear to be the eyewitness accounts of several noblemen that were interviewed by police back in 1862. One of those interviewed, an Elias Torren, mentioned several accounts of strange noises being heard. He said that there were paintings moved around in the middle of the night. Now, if you'll observe one of these paintings described-  
  
He nodded to Jason and pointed to one piece of art located at the top of the staircase.   
  
"You'll see that these paintings are very large and would take at least 6 men to lift and move. This is the description given by a Margery Huddleston, J.E. Huddleston's third daughter, written when she was 19. She moved into the house on her 15th birthday and said that the decorative work her father did rivaled the greatest shrines of India. Anyways, Elias Torren was not the only one who reported these odd happenings. Another visitor, a cousin by the name of Jennifer Dunn, on vacation from England, described in her diary that many of the sculptures in the massive gardens were also moved."   
  
Derek waited. Jason looked at him from behind the camera.   
  
"Garden." Derek said, nodding toward the door.   
  
"Oh." Jason said, and turned the camera off. They walked out the main door and turned to enter the side gate that led them down the stone path to the gardens.   
  
When they stopped beside a huge statue of the late J.E. Huddleston, Jason started the camera up again.   
  
"Okay. Now, one of the statues Jennifer Dunn mentioned happened to be the one of the late great man himself, J.E. Huddleston, who is right here next to me." Derek motioned towards the statue, which towered over him by at least 2 feet.   
  
"Now, this statue was once located all the way on the Far East side of the garden. One night, a disturbance was heard and the next morning, the statue was here, only 25 feet from the west gate. Record shows that the statue weighed half a ton and took over 10 men to lift, when it was built in 1866. Given this mansion's history of strange and unusual occurrences, one would think that the Freaky Links team is actually here to find what happened to the 8 disappearances, right? Wrong. We actually know what happened to the 8 people. We just don't know how."   
  
Jason walked with Derek as he went to the staircase.   
  
"The 8 people, names unknown, consisted of four men, three women, and a 5 year-old child. Each were guests at the shindig Huddleston threw that night, and each never went home that night. However, three months later, each body was found in an entire town away. Autopsy reports showed that the victims died no more than a week before they were found. Which meant that for 2 months and 2 weeks, these people were alive. Further reports show that the victims died of an overwhelming amount of stab wounds to various parts of the body. It was because of this that identification was almost entirely unrecognizable, save that whoever or whatever killed these people left the face in better shape than the rest of the body."   
  
Derek looked behind him momentarily to make sure he didn't stumble. He turned and walked up the stairs, going as fast as he could without falling.   
  
"We are approaching the three bedrooms that we are staying in right now."   
  
Jason peeked inside Derek's room and moved the camera around, zooming on his laptop and backpack lying on the bed. Derek stepped back out in front of the camera.   
  
"This is my room, as you can see. Our trusty web mistress Lan has been kind enough to be my eyes and ears back in sunny old O, as I am to hers here in Huddleston."   
  
After that, they moved on to Jason's room and through a mounted effort on Sue's part, Derek and Jason skipped her room.   
  
They went back downstairs. At this point, Jason noticed that Sue was no longer with them. He dismissed it quickly, as he noticed Derek looking through his documents and pictures searching for the various sites he wanted to film. As soon as he was done, Jason started filming again.   
  
"Okay. We're in the main dining hall. This is the very room where J.E. Huddleston wined and dined his guests. Now, if this document I have here is correct, there should be a secret passageway behind this fireplace right here. I know, cliché. The late cousin Jennifer wrote this in a diary entry. Does the Freaky Links Team dare go inside to explore?"   
  
In front of him, Jason's eyes left the camera for a moment to look at the fireplace, which, even though it was cleanly kept, still looked like it had its vermin problems.   
  
Jason shook his head and mouthed an unyielding no.   
  
Derek just grinned. Jason shut the camera off as Derek walked to him.   
  
"You can keep watch." Derek said. He took the camera and looked through the stuff he had taken with him. Derek, you're going to need to organize better, he said to himself.   
  
"Here we go." Derek said. He pulled a small brick loose and saw a rusted button hidden beneath it. He breathed in deeply and pushed it. The house seemed to rumble as the fireplace revealed a small crack. Putting the camera down, Derek slid both hands into the crack and started pulling. The door slid open a bit easier than he had thought.   
  
"Be careful." Jason said as Derek disappeared into the hole. "That's my jacket you're wearing."   
  



	3. The Huddleston Hunt

  
Jason stood outside in the elaborate hall, his hands in his pockets. He just stood.   
  
"Maybe I should go in." He said to no one but the silence and the paintings. Maybe the walls listened too.   
  
Without going forward, he stooped. His eyes squinted into the open fireplace. Abyss stared back.   
  
"Then again I should hold down the fort." He said, nodding. The cell phone rang.   
  
"Hello?"   
  
"Where are you?" Lan said. Her voice immediately started to pitch from high to low. "I-calling-no-"  
  
"Lan?" Jason said into the phone. "Lan? I can't hear you."   
  
"I SAID-" Lan's voice suddenly came through crystal clear. Jason jumped back in surprise. "Where are you?"  
  
"I'm currently keeping guard outside a secret passageway." Jason quickly replied, thinking the connection may be lost again.   
  
"Where's Derek?" Lan asked.   
  
"Uh, he's keepin' guard INSIDE the secret passage." Jason replied, squinting into the entrance again.   
  
Lan almost shrieked, if it weren't to protect her vocal chords.   
  
"You let him go in alone?!?"   
  
"Well, one of us had to be outside. And you know D." Jason tried to reason.   
  
Lan let up a bit. He was right. Derek had this inescapable ability to put himself into any given situation alone. Lan suspected that if he were in a room full of people and there was a freaky link around, and everyone followed him into it, he'd eventually end up in the face of danger alone.   
  
Not that it was a bad thing, I mean Lan had learned not to wear the expensive clothes when she went on one of Derek's cases. But she did wish she got to be there when he got put on his path to discovery…who knows WHAT goes on inside his head?  
  
Meanwhile, Derek was pursuing the unknown, digging for the truth, mining the gold….dirtying Jason's jacket…  
  
Derek squinted at the thought. "Eh well." He said, and then he grimaced. His back was sore from stooping so low and walking like that. He decided to sit down and run a commentary. After all, would it be the same if he did it from his home?   
  
"Hey, freaks. Derek Barnes here, in the secret passage revealed behind the Huddleston Mansion's fireplace. Haven't found anything yet, it's just mostly-"  
  
Derek looked around him, as if he was noticing his surroundings for the first time.   
  
"A lot of concrete-  
  
--Did they have concrete back then?-  
  
"Some rocks, a lot of dirt, and-  
  
Derek looked down at his boots. "Some 6 and 8 legged creatures I'm sure you don't want to see."   
  
"According to the blueprints, the end of the tunnel leads to the outside garden."   
  
Derek sighed. Nothing. Just darkness. He was starting to think he was wasting camera time when he heard a noise.   
  
He held his camera up with renewed, but cautious, interest and shined his flashlight to add more light.   
  
Derek frowned. There was a wall about 6 feet up ahead. He pulled out the blueprints and fumbled around, trying to angle the flashlight to provide light.   
  
--We need to get those that loop around the ear-  
  
Then he shook his head at the cost.   
  
"There's not supposed to be a wall here." He said, shining the flashlight back between the wall and the blueprints.   
  
He moved closer to the wall and shined the light to the corners. He wondered whether the plans that Lan had given him were really the most updated.  
  
Derek gently kicked the wall with his dust covered boot.   
  
Big mistake.   
  
A loud shriek invaded his senses. He saw nothing, he felt dirt blow on him, he smelled something akin to musty dampness, he heard a scream, and he tasted dirt and dust.   
  
He shut his eyes as the dirt stung them. He heard his camera clatter to the concrete. He sincerely hoped that it was still running.   
  
Outside, Jason was at attention.   
  
"What the hell was that?" He looked next to him and watched a folded napkin blow gently. There wasn't a breeze.   
  
And he thought he heard something. What did Derek talk about a few days ago…he was reading up on something…banshees. That was it. Jason shook his head and walked to the entrance of the passage.   
  
"Derek?" He shouted.   
  
No answer.   
  
"Jason?" Derek yelled.   
  
Nothing.   
  
Derek shook his head.   
  
"I think I've been here too long." He said. And then briefly wondered whether he was getting soft. He used to be all gung ho about intrepidly going after the unknown.   
  
He waved it off. The point was, he needed to get out.   
  
He turned around.   
  
And looked into a white face, sneering at him.   
  
Derek gave a cry, jumping back. He grimaced when he hit his head on the low ceiling.   
  
"You don't want to be in here." The face said.   
  
"Are you here for the obvious too?" Derek said, staring back.   
  
Vince Elsing.   
  
"This isn't a place you want to be." He said. "Get out now or else they'll be angry."   
  
Derek coughed as dirt entered his mouth. Something entered his eyes and he had to shut them. When he opened them, Vince was gone.   
  
"Vince?" He said. Nothing.   
  
"Derek!" A voice said.   
  
Derek frowned. "Jason?"   
  
He then saw a little dot in the distance where Jason was. He could see the yellow sweatshirt he was wearing. Or at least the little dot of it.   
  
"Okay, going now." Derek muttered to himself. He wiped the sweat from his forehead.   
  
As he did, his shoe hit something. He pointed his camera down to it and jumped back, his breath catching in his throat.   
  
It was a human skull, and it hadn't been there before.   
  
Derek's first thought was to film it. So he panned his camera as soon as his hand stopped shaking. Then he thought of bringing it back. He needed a new souvenir…Osceola would get lonely.   
  
Derek debated about whether to do so. He sighed and shined his flashlight back on it. He didn't want to look at it.   
  
But then he felt like he was going to collapse.   
  
And it was because the skull had just regained it's eyeballs. They were dark and withered, but they were there. And Derek was sure that they were staring at him.   
  
"Calm down, Barnes." He said to himself.   
  
There was no doubt about it though. Derek just grabbed all his stuff and shoved it into his leather pack. He then ran as fast as he could stooping.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	4. The Huddleston Hunt

  
"Uh, Lan." Derek said into the phone.   
  
Back in sunny Florida, Lan was stretched out on the couch, her laptop on her lap. The phone had been moved to the coffee table, where it was a convenient distance from her hand. It was on speakerphone now. Lan could hear the clanking behind Derek and the odd noises.   
  
"Where are you?" She asked.   
  
"Well, we're sorta…." He looked to his right and saw Sue sitting on one of the chairs, bored. She had her bags packed beside her. The next bus that came through the town was arriving in half an hour.   
  
"You're not in jail again, are you?" Lan asked, and stopped typing.   
  
"Not exactly." He said, but cast a look at the yellowed door of Janine Dobbs' office. "You won't believe what we saw."   
  
"What?"   
  
Derek didn't know how to say it. He wasn't even sure if he remembered it all. He pulled out the camera and rewatched the footage he had caught before, for the 5th time.   
  
"I got out of the tunnel right? And the next room, it had all these paintings, and there was blood on them, Lan. Just dripping down from the paintings. And we were the only people in the house." He said. "Or, I think we were the only ones."   
  
"Wow." She said. She shuddered. "Blood?"   
  
"Well, it looked like blood. It could've been some kind of prank, you know? But it's just weird anyways. And the curator has Jason in her office. She's pretty pissed."   
  
Lan sat up. "No kidding."   
  
The door opened then and Jason walked out. Derek said goodbye to Lan and hung up.   
  
"Thank you, gentlemen." Janine sighed. "Well, the blood wasn't blood. It was red paint. The police are saying that someone came in and did it. One of the paint cans is gone, the painters left them for the job."   
  
"So you know that we didn't do it." Derek said slowly.   
  
Janine nodded. "Yeah, we've got enough evidence to take you two off the list. Are you sure that you didn't see anyone?"   
  
Derek and Jason nodded. They both looked over at Sue, who was almost comatose.  
  
"Well, I'm sorry to cut your investigation short." Janine said.   
  
Derek handed her a card that had his name and his phone number, as opposed to the normal FreakyLinks.com eye. "If you find anything-"   
  
There was a honking outside and Sue jumped up. Adjusting her short dress, she gathered up her bags and left without saying goodbye. And to tell the truth, Jason didn't mind.   
  
"Sorry man." Derek said quietly. Jason shook his head. They walked outside into the sunlight.   
  
"Not a problem. Somethin's up. Have you talked to Lan?"   
  
As they walked to the Freakmobile, Derek nodded.   
  
"Yeah, I didn't have time to tell her a lot." Derek looked at the sky. It was quickly becoming windy, despite the sunshine. "it's going to storm soon." He said. He looked at his watch. "We should just stay in town until tomorrow."   
  
  
Lan sat next to the phone. The laptop was sitting on the coffee table, unused. She stared at the phone, wondering if she should call Derek.   
  
There was a knock at the door and Chloe walked in, carrying a few books and papers.   
  
"Hey, Chloe." Lan said.   
  
"Hey. I found some stuff that might help the guys." She said, piling the information onto the table.   
  
She looked at Lan, sitting on the couch. "What happened?"   
  
"Nothing." She said, throwing her hands up. "Absolutely nothing. Derek called like half an hour ago, talking about how they saw something in the mansion. But then, as usual, he hung up."   
  
"I did some research on the house." She said. "I uh, found some medical journals talking about it."   
  
Lan frowned. "Medical journals?" She said. "Why would it be in there?"   
  
"That's the thing. Huddleston, the guy who built the mansion, he was supposedly insane. He threw a lot of parties for noblemen and their families in the house but there were always rumors around the town that he was insane and he held occult practices in his mansion."   
  
Lan read from one of the papers Chloe had brought. "You found this in a medical journal?"   
  
"Huh?" Chloe said. Then she shook her head, her hair flinging around. "No, no. The stuff about him being insane was from the journal. This stuff about the occult practices, that's from this book I found in the library."   
  
She could imagine the look on the librarian's face as she brought the large worn volume up to the counter. The psychiatrist who looked up books on Filipino vampire myths was back again…  
  
"Okay, so J.E. Huddleston was this big loony. So what?" Lan asked.   
  
"So, I think that what the house might have been built on an old burial ground."   
  
"Of what?"  
  
Chloe smiled. Her eyes shined. "The Huddleston family."   
  
  
  
"So what are you saying? That J.E. Huddleston killed people and buried them under the house?" Derek said.   
  
"No, no, no. Not at all. He didn't bury the people under the house. He built the house on the people.' Chloe said.   
  
"But the times don't match up then. The house was built before the people started disappearing." Derek said.   
  
"I know, but according to this, there are two Huddleston Mansions." Chloe said, not without triumph.   
  
Derek sat up. "Two?"   
  
"Two what?" Jason asked, walking into the hotel room.   
  
"Chloe says that there's two Huddleston Mansions." Derek said, placing a hand over the speaker. He pressed a button on the phone and the call was put on speaker.   
  
"Hey girls." Jason greeted. Lan shouted a hello from the kitchen.   
  
"What do you mean, there's two mansions?" Derek asked, getting back on subject.   
  
"The one you went to was built after the first one was supposedly condemned. Actually, it was said by the health department to be unsafe. But of course, no one really believes that since it's still up." Chloe said.  
  
"Why didn't the curator say anything? And how did we not know?" Derek asked.   
  
"Not a lot of people did. The older mansion was built before Huddleston became immensely rich. The mansion was a lot smaller and in a very remote area. He didn't have any neighbors that could talk about his place." Lan said, walking in with tea. She handed one to Chloe. "From what we've dug up, the man did a lot of occult practices at the old mansion, and when it was mysteriously fated to be abandoned, he was a rich guy and built another one."   
  
"And that's when the people started to disappear. So what does the old mansion have to do with his family burial ground?" Jason asked, sitting on the bed.   
  
"So J.E. Huddleston seemed to be this recluse right? Not that much. He had a family that lived with him in total seclusion. He eventually became insane. The old house was built on the Huddleston family graveyard, and when they moved out, they left the family."   
  
"So?" Derek said. "This is confusing."   
  
Chloe sighed. "Here's what we have so far. Huddleston built two mansions. The first one is right here in Florida. He built it right on top of the Huddleston family graveyard. Then when he moved out, he built one in Georgia, the one you're at. Now, here's something new. When he built the old mansion, his family moved in and one by one, they started becoming sick. The most anyone lived was the age of 29, with the exception of him and his wife. Both of them didn't die until they were 96 years old. He died even later, when he was 99. But none of this children or anyone who lived in the old mansion lived to be 29."  
  
"It's like a curse." Derek said, pondering.   
  
"Pretty much. And when they moved into the new house, the family deaths stopped. But then the dinner guests started to drop."   
  
"A curse." Jason said. "But why?"  
  
"Well, there was this theory floating around that this guy was obsessed with immortality. He wanted his legacy to live forever, but he wanted even more for himself and his wife to live forever. It was suggested that he had practiced the occult in an attempt to reach immortality." Chloe flipped through a few pages of her book.   
  
Lan sipped her tea. "See what a few candles and a big book can do?" She said.   
  
"This is a trip." Derek said, laughing. "We'll probably be heading back tomorrow. Uh, about the other house-"   
  
"I'm sending the directions now. We'll meet you there tomorrow." Chloe said, grinning. "Good night."   
  
"Goodnight." Jason and Derek said, and hung up.   
  
Derek grinned and turned the light off.   
  



	5. The Huddleston Hunt

  
"God, this stuff is like quicksand." Derek said, sticking his head out the window.   
  
"Yeah and we're sinking in it." Jason remarked, opening the door. A thick thread of dirt fell off.   
  
"So how far do we still have to go?" Derek asked, his eyes scanning the directions he had received from Chloe and Lan.   
  
"Uhh…" Jason looked at his map. "Maybe a mile or so."   
  
"All right." Derek took his phone out and dialed Chloe's number.   
  
"Yeah?"   
  
"Chloe?"   
  
"Derek? Where are you?" She asked.   
  
"We're about a mile away."   
  
"Great, we're almost there." She said. "We've been reading more about this place. Did you know that Huddleston, boy this guy was a real nutcase-"   
  
"Is that your professional opinion?" Jason asked.   
  
"Funny. But really, it was rumored he did experiments on his family, which might explain the deaths, and I think he might have done them on his dinner guests too."   
  
The phone started to break up.   
  
"Chloe?" Derek shouted.   
  
"it's the trees." Jason said. "They're blocking the signal."   
  
"I'll see you at the house!"   
  
***   
  
When Chloe and Lan had reached the house, they both cautiously opened their doors.   
  
"Thank God I rented the SUV." Chloe said.   
  
"Right." Lan groaned as her shoes sank about 2 inches in the dirt.   
  
"Okay, well I guess we either go in or wait outside." Chloe said, looking at the house before them. It looked like it was about to fold over like a house of cards.   
  
"Let's test the structural integrity first." Lan suggested.   
  
Chloe looked at her. "How do we do that?"   
  
Lan hefted her backpack and bent down. She picked up a large rock and squeezed it in her hand. Reaching back, she heaved it towards the house. It flew through the air and banged against the wall.   
  
Neither of them spoke. The house stood silent, a small scrape where the rock had made contact.   
  
"All right, I guess it won't collapse on us." Lan said, shrugging.   
  
They trudged towards the front, and they both sighed with relief as they stepped on firmer ground. Wiping her shoes on nearby bushes, Chloe took out her cell phone. She speed dialed Derek and after a couple of seconds, the phone reported that there was no signal.   
  
"I can't get to him." Chloe said, shaking her head. She looked up at the structure and squinted.   
  
"I think we should wait here." Lan said. She raised a hand and she wanted to dust off a window, but the greenish moss covering it dissuaded her.  
  
There was a deep rumbling as Derek and Jason pulled up with the reckless abandon of a wrecking ball. Mud sloshed on the wheels and on the surrounding shrubbery as they stopped. Derek opened the door with gusto and jumped down, his shoes hitting mud. He looked down and shrugged.   
  
Chloe and Lan looked at each other in disbelief.   
  
Jason, a little more cautious, stepped out of the car and jumped to drier ground.   
  
"This was Huddleston's old stomping grounds?" Derek asked.   
  
"It's a fixer-upper, I can tell you." Jason said, turning the camera on.   
  
"Mmm, okay, let's do a opening crawl in front of the house." Derek said, gesturing for Chloe and Lan to join him in front of the camera.   
  
"We're rolling." Jason said, pushing the red 'record' button.   
  
"All right. Hey Freaks. Derek here, with the entire team standing in front of Huddleston's old house. Yeah, I know, we were there before. Turns out that the old man had two houses. Chloe Tanner and Lan Williams here, Jason Tatum behind the camera. Now, we're still trying to figure this whole mess out, it's a real puzzler. Did Old Man Huddleston perform experiments with the occult on his family? Was this the origin of his descent into madness? What really happened to his dinner guests at Huddleston Manor in Georgia? We're going to find out."   
  
Derek waved Jason over and they crowded around the steps. Derek looked back uncertainly and gingerly walked up the stone steps. A piece of the step gave way as his foot touched it and he almost fell off.   
  
"Careful." He said.   
  
When they had all reached the front door, Jason looked at the handle. Scraping some of the moss off, he pushed the door open.   
  
"Ugh, what is that smell?" Chloe asked.   
  
"Could be a dead body." Derek joked.   
  
Lan hit him in the arm.   
  
"Ow, hey."   
  
"I think it's the moss." Jason said, covering his nose.   
  
"Well, uh, why don't we split up?" Derek said. "Jason, you and Lan take the third floor."   
  
He looked at Chloe. "We can get the basement." Derek said, cracking open a door that led to a sharp turn of narrow steps. He could barely see beyond the third tread of steps.   
  
"You sure?" Lan asked. "It doesn't look so stable."   
  
"I don't think any of this house does." Jason said, poking a wall. It trembled under his touch and a few flakes of paint fluttered off.   
  
"We'll be fine." Derek said.   
  
They split up and Derek and Chloe began their descent.   
  
Lan cast a worried look at the open door before following Jason upstairs.   
  
The rooms were empty, except for a few small pieces of old furniture.   
  
Lan passed by an old armoire in the hall and shuddered. It had probably been there for decades. Out of curiosity, she pulled the handle and slid the drawer open.   
  
"Jason?"   
  
"What?" He came out of a room.   
  
"Look." She said. There were old photos, each stuck together by something dark and sticky. She reached in a hand and pulled at one. She pulled it out, attached the several other photographs.   
  
Jason examined the photos.   
  
"It's the family." She said, pointing to a picture of an old woman sitting neatly on a bench. "I recognize that photo, it's the grandmother."   
  
"They just left it here?" Jason asked. "People have no sense of family memories."   
  
"Wait, there's something else." Lan squinted. There was barely any light. Jason shone the camera down into the drawer and she peeked in.   
  
"Oh my God."   
  
"What?" Jason asked anxiously.   
  
"Look at this." Lan said, pulling out an old bounded notebook. It was covered in dust and scratches. More of the dark sticky stuff coated the top. She offered a face of disgust as it got on her hands. She held it to her nose and sniffed it.   
  
"What is that stuff?" Jason asked.   
  
"I don't know."   
  
"What's in the book?"   
  
Lan opened it, examining the pages. They were covered in words written in cursive, scratchy and faded. The edges of the book were old and yellowed, creases cutting down the sides.   
  
"Hey, look at that." Jason said, pointing.   
  
At the bottom of a page, it said J.E. Huddleston.   
  
"Well, now we know who wrote in it." Lan said. "It must be a journal. I can read some of it." She said, her eyes tracing the cursive until a thick crease harshly cut it off.   
  
Jason looked into the drawer again. Aside from the rest of the photos, he didn't see anything. Taking the photos out and stuffing them carefully into the backpack Lan carried, he closed the drawer. Opening the second drawer, he frowned.   
  
He pulled out several thick volumes, each torn and covered with more of the substance.   
  
"You know, whatever this stuff is, it's damn annoying." He said, wiping his hand off.   
  
"What are these?" Lan asked, taking one of the books. She read the spine.   
  
"History of the Occult." Jason read off one of them. He picked up a blue book and looked at the spine. It was torn where the title was. He opened the book and was startled when a big image of a ferocious demon-like creature faced him. He flipped the page quickly.   
  
"Possession and Alchemy?" Lan read.   
  
"This guy was one whacked out dude." Jason said, shaking his head. He put the books in Lan's backpack.   
  
"You sure we should be taking this stuff?" Lan asked.   
  
"We need it. Especially that journal."   
  
Jason quickly checked the third drawer, which was empty. He opened the fourth drawer and cursed as it stalled halfway from opening. Lan stooped down and pulled on it.   
  
"See if you can push it from the back." Jason said, pulling the edge of the armoire so Lan could slip behind.   
  
"Uh, Jason." Lan said, looking behind the armoire.   
  
"What?" Jason asked. "See if you can push the left edge, I think I've got it. There's something stuck under."   
  
"Jason?"   
  
"There's a piece of paper or something…"   
  
"Jason!"   
  
Jason looked up. "What?!?"   
  
"There's something you should see." Lan said quietly, and her finger pointed to the armoire.   
  
Jason stood up and joined Lan.   
  
"What the hell is that?" He asked.   
  
They both stared at a gaping hole, big and black, reaching down to god knows where.   
  
"I don't know." Lan said. Jason shone the camera down into the hole. He held it back up.   
  
"It's too dark. I don't see any ground."   
  
"Well we know why the drawer wouldn't open." Lan said, pulling on a rope that led to the armoire. The rope swayed in her hand, the other end leading down into the abyss.   
  
"Let's go find Chloe and Derek." Jason said.   



	6. The Huddleston Hunt

"This place reeks." Derek said, covering his mouth.   
  
"And I doubt that it's been fumigated." Chloe said, stepping on a scrambling insect, careful not to stomp too hard. The floorboards under their feet creaked and shifted under their weight.   
  
"Look at all this furniture." Derek said, looking at the room. What light Derek's camera provided revealed that the room had at least two armchairs and a table.   
  
"Guess they didn't want to move it all out." Chloe said. She stepped aside to avoid hitting the dark mass of a chair, and promptly hit the side of a desk. Pulling back in pain, she gave the small desk and kick and saw the cloud of dust rise.   
  
"Hey wait." Derek said. He came to her side and kneeled down.   
  
"What?" She asked, kneeling down with him.   
  
"Maybe there's something in the drawers." He dusted the cobwebs off and pulled on the knob. It wouldn't budge.   
  
"See if you can pry it open." Derek said, giving her his pack. He aimed the light down as she looked for something to force open the drawer.  
  
Chloe took out a large pocket knife and flipped it open. She inserted the blade into the crack and the dust shook off the wood as it rattled.   
  
"Nothing." She said, taking the knife out. The silver knife was covered in a black stain. She frowned and wiped it on a piece of newspaper. "I don't think there's any locks." She said. "So it must be just stuck."   
  
"Lets see if we can push it from the back." Derek said, standing back up. He set the camera down on top of the old desk and he and Chloe pulled the desk away from the wall. The back, sure enough, was missing the wood covering piece and Chloe and Derek both kneeled down again, hoping to open the drawer. Chloe pushed the back with both hands, but it wouldn't move. She sighed and took out a small flashlight. Shining it into the cracks, she glared at what she saw.   
  
"What, Chloe?" Derek asked, anxious.   
  
"There's something in the drawer, but it's covered in that black stuff that was on the knife." She said, shaking her head. "It's like glue."   
  
"Well, I don't think old man Huddleston is going to miss the desk, so why don't we just kick it open?" Derek asked, shaking the desk. More dust fell to the old floor and the writing table rocked under Derek's hands.   
  
"We could." She said, shrugging.   
  
Derek stepped back and kicked at the drawer. His muddy shoe left a mark on the edge.   
  
"Hey." Chloe said. She squinted and touched the small silver knob. It was elaborately decorated with a ring of flowers on the edge, and a sun in the middle. The years of wear had left it muddy. She pushed against the desk with one hand as another pulled the knob.   
  
The knob fell out into her hand and she shined the flashlight into the small hole.   
  
"What do you see?" Derek asked.   
  
"A few papers." She said. "I can't see a lot, there's not enough light." She stopped looking and stepped back. She kicked the desk and it groaned loudly.   
  
"I can see why it can be therapeutic." Derek said, joining her in the kicking. The desk refused to give. Chloe groaned in frustration.   
  
"This isn't therapy." She said. "This is just kicking a desk." She gave a final kick before giving up.   
  
Something clattered to the floor. Partially hidden under the layers of filth that had accumulated, and illuminated by a sliver of light, it had fallen from some fracture in the desk.   
  
Chloe bent down and retrieved the object. She held it up and Derek shone the light on it.   
  
"It's a key." He said.   
  
"Yeah, but what does it unlock?" Chloe asked.   
  
There were cautious footsteps coming down the stairs. A moving light was maneuvering it's way down.   
  
"D?" Jason shouted.   
  
"Jason!" Derek shouted. Jason and Lan stepped into the basement, into the dank air.   
  
"Did you guys find anything?" Chloe asked.   
  
"Tons." Lan said, gesturing to her backpack. "What about you guys?"   
  
"Well, there's stuff in the drawer, I think it's holding it shut." Chloe said.   
  
"Was it black and sticky?" Lan asked. Derek and Chloe nodded.   
  
"We found the same stuff upstairs." Jason said. He looked at the desk and frowned. "Is that a Strathmore?"  
  
"Huh?" Derek said.   
  
"That's a Strathmore desk. My great-grandpa made them when he worked for the Strathmore Furniture Company in New York." Jason bent down and Chloe gave him her small light. He shone it under the desk. "My grandpa would tell me stories of how they made the desks and he said that they were called puzzle desks because the drawers could only be opened with a lock mechanism…" He fingered something under the desk and the desk clicked. "…and it was under the desk."   
  
"It must've been a very good puzzle." Derek said, grinning. "Cause we've been kicking it and everything."   
  
"Good we came then." Jason said, smiling. He looked at the drawer.   
  
"Oh." Chloe said, looking down at the little knob. She gave it to Jason. "Oops."   
  
Jason shrugged and pushed the knob into place. He opened the drawer slowly. "Open sesame."   
  
"Jason, you are a miracle worker." Derek said. "Let's see what's in this baby."   



End file.
